Center Grove’s Austin Lowden attacks the Noblesville defense during Thursday’s match.
Chris Williams | For the Daily Journal
Having bypassed high school soccer for three years, Austin Lowden decided he wanted to spend his senior year playing alongside his friends.
Thursday night was exactly the type of match that the senior had in mind — and he seized the moment.
Lowden’s goal with exactly one minute left on the clock lifted Class 3A No. 1 Center Grove to a thrilling 2-1 home win over second-ranked Noblesville, which came into the evening as a three-time defending state champion with a 46-match unbeaten streak.
“It’s exactly what I signed up for,” said Lowden, who had previously played for the Indiana Fire Academy in MLS Next.
The Trojans improved to 13-0 with the victory. Noblesville left town with its first defeat in 734 days.
“They don’t lose,” McLaughlin said of the Millers, “and to beat somebody like that you have to win the game. What we did in the last minute there, we won the game. They didn’t quit, they just kept coming. We defended our butts off for 80 minutes.”
A Charlie Habig corner kick with a minute and a half to go was cleared to the far side by the Noblesville defense but corraled by the Trojans’ Niekos Whitney, who served it into the box to Lowden. Confronted by a charging defender, Lowden passed out to his left for Habig, who promptly returned it to set up a better look that Lowden fired past Miller netminder Alex Eberhart.
Noblesville (8-1-6) pushed forward in the closing seconds and put some pressure on the Center Grove defense, but a loose ball just to the right of the net was covered up by Carter Dorrell with 37 seconds remaining, the cap on a stellar night for the sophomore goalkeeper and his defense, led by center back Evan Hewitt.
Both sides had their chances during a back-and-forth first half, with Center Grove (13-0) controlling the ball for a slim majority of time and Noblesville generating most of their better looks on counterattacks. The Millers’ best such opportunity of the half came in the 12th minute, when a well-placed cross from right to left set up a shot at close range. Dorrell, though, managed to recover to the weak side just in time to make a brilliant save.
After several tantalizing ventures inside the box, the Trojans finally broke through with 9:53 left before the intermission. Lowden’s through ball caught Whitney in stride just behind the Millers’ back line, and the junior beat Eberhart with a hard and low shot deposited just inside the left goalpost.
That tally held up until midway through the second half, when the visitors drew even with 21:38 to go. Caedmon Todd’s point-blank shot was denied by Dorrell, but the rebound came right back to him and he made good on the second effort.
Rather than put their heads down, the Trojans kept attacking. A long shot from Matheus Gubert with just over two minutes to go was on target but tapped over the crossbar by a leaping Eberhart; Center Grove kept the pressure on and eventually got the game-winner to go.
“You’ve just got to be resilient,” Habig said. “You’ve just got to grit it out and stay with it the whole time. That’s what championship teams are made of — you’ve got to be in it to the last second.”
McLaughlin, understandably, was all smiles after the match, praising everyone from the obvious stars (Lowden and Dorrell) down to the players who never came off the bench.
“I’ve had teams in the past, they’d sit there and pout and they’d complain,” the coach said. “Those boys that didn’t get in, they’re on the bench, they’re yelling, they’re cheering their teammates on, and they supported them all the way. So 1 through 19, that’s a team win.”
And the kind of win that makes dreams of a state championship seem so much more attainable.
Armed with that belief, the Trojans continue on into the final week of the regular season sporting a perfect record and a sparkling 54-5 goal differential. But while everything looks rosy, the players remain focused on the business that remains ahead over the coming weeks.
“It definitely gives us confidence, but we can’t get arrogant with it,” Habig said. “Just keep grinding in practice and stay humble.”
